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Italian cuisine, known as a more sophisticated cuisine with premium quality, normally comes with premium sky-high prices as well. PocoLoco, however, offers Italian food at extremely affordable prices, with a more down to earth, family-oriented attitude. They make it a point to reach into the heartlands so affordable Italian cuisine reaches out to all people of Singapore.

With that mindset, their main PocoLoco outlet is located in the Ang Mo Kio heartlands, and they’ve most recently branched out to the Westies of Singapore, opening an outlet in the Jurong heartlands.

Situated at level two of Snow City, PocoLoco exudes warm friendly vibes with an all-wooden interior: wooden tables, chairs and walls, making it jolly environment for casual dining with friends and family.

The fun thing about PocoLoco Number 2 is that it’s also a microbrewery! That means that all beers on tap here are locally brewed and stored in these giant cylinders in the outlet itself.

PocoLoco Microbrewery has five unique choices of in-house beer, all at the low price of $6 a glass, to cater to all kinds of beer lovers out there.

So, to all the Mums and Dads out there: drop your kids off to have fun in the snow while you kick back and have some alone time with these lovely beers.

Green – Verde (5%) lures you in with its striking green colour that immediately catches your attention. This specialty seaweed lager beer is similar to the one at RedDot Brewery that has set tongues wagging.

Apart from the expected smoothness that lager beers have, it leaves a subtle hint of seaweed lingering in your mouth.

Lager Light – Lager Chiaro (5%) , lower in alcohol content and calories than their regular Lager, caters to people more conscious about gaining beer bellies. With a lighter acidity, this one was my favourite as it had a sparky character to it.

For those who like more bitter beers with a heavier body, get the Dark – Dunkel (8%) that has earthy hop bitterness with chocolate coffee notes complementing it. This one also has a higher alcohol content than most beers *wink wink*.

Their Weizen – Birra Di Frumento (5%), a classic German style wheat beer, is made with a large proportion of wheat malt during the brewing process, resulting in a unique wheat aromatic profile with distinct fruity flavours.

And of course, they have regular Lager – Lager Birra (7%), a brew distinct with a vivid copper hue. After being fermented for a long period in lower temperatures, the lager develops a crisp malty flavour and smooth texture.

To start off, we got ourselves the Burrata ($16) – Burrata cheese with rocket salad, tomato and parma ham, sprinkled with salt and pepper and drizzled with olive oil and balsamic vinaigrette.

This mozzarella and cream concoction with its unusually soft textures went hand in hand with the savoury parma ham. The clean flavours from the rocket and sour bursts of fresh tomato gave this dish a nice crisp finish.

Seeking something a bit more heavy, we ordered the Gamberi ($7) – prawns sautéed with butter, garlic, white wine and lemon. As a fan of all things garlic, I really enjoyed this but I felt the Gamberi would’ve been perfect if the prawns were a bit fresher.

Apart from that, the melted butter and garlic made for a deliciously pungent sauce.

Funghi ($6), gave off such a robust flavour that I assumed that there were a lot of ingredients that went into preparing this dish. It is however, simply mushrooms sautéed in garlic, olive oil, parsley and chicken stock; simplistic yet delectable.

Manzo ($12) – pasta with beef in truffle cream sauce, served al dente, maintaining the pasta’s thick dense texture. The cream sauce is so luscious to the point that it felt a little curdled, and went very well with the flavourful beef slices. I’m definitely coming back for more of this.

Porcini ($13) – risotto with porcini mushroom was served al dente as well, but was a little too hard for our liking. Despite that, the porcini flavours permeated the entire dish and tasted very much so like truffle. The mushrooms themselves, soaked in juices are extremely soft to the bite and melt in your mouth.

Their Gnocchi ($11) comes bathed in the choice of either tomato sauce or pesto sauce. This home made potato gnocchi is thick, dense and wonderfully starchy (don’t under it you’re the kind of person who counts calories). The tomato base is sour, sharp and light, and you can tell that it’s freshly made.

For mains, we got the Pollo Alla Milanese ($15) – breaded chicken with arrabiata sauce and some garden vegetables. With a thin layer of fine crust as its skin, the meat, chewy and just moderately dry, is packing in flavour. When had with the arriabata sauce, it’s refreshingly mingled with sour and slightly spicy tinges.

Their Creme Brulee ($5), stuffed with vanilla pods, isn’t as cloyingly sweet as most creme brulees that I’ve come across. To some, that might not be ideal, but of course, if you prefer your creme brulees to be a little less sweet, this one’s for you.

Panna Cotta ($5). This cream flan has a very light, thin milky texture to it, with its mellowness finely balanced out by the sour tang of the strawberry puree sitting on top of it.

Their Tiramisu ($6) has lady’s finger biscuits thoroughly dripping with coffee, with this sogginess paired with a thin layer of crunch. The bitter coffee flavours are wonderfully balanced out by the thick and sweet creaminess of a generous dollop of mascarpone cream.

Lava ($10). This chocolate lava cake is to die for. After all known for its gooey goodness, when you slice this gem open, such decadently sweet chocolate lava comes gushing out. The cake itself is extremely soft, with its outside a slight chewy crisp.

When you have it with the ice cream, it’s just pure heaven. I’d recommend leaving the strawberry puree out of this wonderful coupling though.

Poco Loco Microbrewery, on top of serving wonderfully delicious Italian food at affordable prices, made it a point to reach out into the heartlands of Singapore, allowing fine premium Italian cuisine to be accessible to everyone.

Drop by for some locally brewed beer with your co-workers after work, or come by with your family after some bonding time at snow city; everyone from all walks of life is welcome.